Where does the eagle fly beside the elephant? They meet in Macau, where Portuguese priests brushed against Chinese traders, and head west, past the Indian port of Goa (where this multi-tusked elephant must avoid ivory carvers), around the Cape of Good Hope, up towards the Azores (where eagle confronts the namesake of this Archipelago, the goshawk), and straight east to Lisbon.

The unlikely friendship of the double headed eagle and Asian elephant was born from the union of sacred and secular currents moving through trading relations between Portugal and China. Finished cloth, like this silk damask, formed the backbone of trade because it was the most impressive, conspicuous evidence of what the traders were doing in distant lands. The textiles that traveled from Macau to Lisbon developed a visual language that merged Chinese and European imagery. Chinese decorative elements were well-suited to the ornate style of Portuguese religious ceremonies, and the exotic textiles were proudly displayed in public festivals, weddings, and commemorative events. Elephants and chrysanthemums were welcome in the Garden of Eden.

These textiles prove more than the triumph of the Portuguese in Asia, the easy flow of money that follows luxury goods. The journey of the elephant and double headed eagle – one animal described in a Buddhist sutra and the other the crest of the Hapsburg empire – proves the triumph of the image. How else can diplomacy rest between the threads of finely woven cloth?

900 knots per square inch on a silk foundation allows you to paint with thread. Weavers of Indian pashmina carpets could create a wide range of colors with tight knots of different colors, or juxtapose shades of the same color to create the effect of shading. The elaborate lattice and blossom patterns realized gardens of fantastical lushness, dense bouquets of the most luxurious fabric made in northern India.

Cross cultural pollination was woven into the fibers of these blossoms. They date back to the mid 17th century, right around the time when European trading companies were starting to establish their presence in the Asian spice and textile market. If the carpets look like tapestries, that’s because the weavers probably saw some examples from a merchant or Jesuit. In one of the carpets, there’s a little Chinese-style cloud, suggesting that Indian textile art used ideas from East and West – a true crossroads of design.

I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.– Rumi

• Louise Saxton’s Queen Billie is a tapestry of discarded needlework fragments, gathered and layered on sheer tulle. The pinning process is similar to painting with a brush, a modern counterpart to Audubon’s catalogue of birds.

India may be called a second Paradise for whosoever quits this garden, suffers from remorse.– Kalim (1581-1651)

• Decorative arts and architecture from Mughal India – like this floral motif and imperial horse – was a visual dialogue between Islamic Iran, Hindu India, and Europe. The complex patterns of arabesques and floral motifs found their way into temples, private rooms, and calligraphy scrolls.

Before Picasso stuck newspaper on his canvases, random objects were not welcome in the bubble of art. Textiles and paintings lived far apart. Now, fabrics mingle with paint, slowly chipping away at the distinction between art and craft.

• Tracy Potts’ 600,000,000 Million Moments of your Life that have Simply Disappeared is the amount of time you just spent weaving through the maze of abstract crocheted patterns. Her work hints at animals, like this winged horse, but remains an enigma wrapped in rich textures. She mixes crochet, sewing, knitting, and paint into self-contained fantasies.

What do marbled paper, textured fabric, and petrified rock have in common?

• This Petrified Crystal is a cross section of a log located in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. During the Late Triassic period (when dinosaurs began to evolve), trees that were submerged in the river channels were buried by volcanic ash. Traces of silica from the ash mixed with groundwater to gradually create the rainbow colored quartz crystals that replaced the wood.

• Marit Fujiwara’s Wound Collection walks a fine line between grotesque flesh and dazzling rock formations, all with the skillful manipulation of fabric and stitching.

• Josefina Concha’s Cuerpo Zurcido III does what Van Gogh’s brushstrokes did to painting – intensifies color and form with texture. The richness of her sewing evokes the clay landscapes of the Southwest colored by bloody sunsets.

• Danielle Byrd’s Scarf is made of silk habotai marbled with creamy pink, blue and yellow.

No, we’re not talking about blue jeans. Natural indigo dye is extracted from the the Indigofera plant, and it was a luxury product in Ancient Rome, Europe in the Middle Ages, West Africa, and Edo Japan. For the ancient Greeks, indikon meant both “dye” and “Indian,” because India was the oldest supplier of indigo to Europe until Vasco de Gama opened up trade with Asia in the 15th century.

• This Adire Eleko textile comes from the Yoruba, Nigeria. The designs, signifying various plants and animals, are drawn on to the cloth with a cassava flour paste. As the cloth is dip-dyed in an indigo bath, the paste absorbs the markings to create a rich grid of blue on blue.

more than the color of the flower, the fragrance delights my senses - whose scented sleeve brushed against the plum blossoms near my house

• This six-panel folding screen from the late sixteenth century was one of many that reflected the idea of Tagasode (Whose Sleeves?). The phrase first appeared in the Kokinshu anthology, completed in 920. The anonymous poem, written above, refers to the Heian custom of scenting sleeves with incense, and pretending that your lover’s perfume on your own robes was nothing more than the result of picking flowers.

• The Kenzo Spring 2013 Collection was inspired by utility gear and the jungles of Thailand.

• The Margiela Spring 2013 Couture Collection included one piece that started with a hoodie collar but cascaded into a 20s style evening dress.

• Seiko Kinoshita’s Grasp combines paper yarn, copper wire, linen, and wood. Watch this video to see how she works with textiles in her studio.

Henri Rousseau traveled to exotic locations by visiting botanical gardens in Paris and reading colonialist accounts of their adventures. Here are some lusciously green items to transport you into a tropical daydream.

• Henri Rousseau’s Horse Attacked by a Jaguar depicts a scene that corresponds exactly to an account given in Beeton’s Dictionary of Natural History, published in 1871. The rather violent and melodramatic language portrays the jaguar as a savage beast, but Rousseau transforms the scene into a dream-like composition, full of foliage borrowed from the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.

• Sheila Hicks’ Palm Tree is a fiber tapestry that reflects her ability to bridge the gap between craft design and installation art. Take a look at more of her innovative work from a recent retrospective.

• The Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2010 Couture Collection included a bag made of strips of green leather that resembled a casually folded palm leaf.

• This Candle Holder by DMW Pottery Studio has a green and rusty red surface, with stylized leaf cut-outs.